


The Secret Lives of Heroes

by firecat



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Aging, Despair, Gods, Half-Sibling Incest, Heroes, Hubris, M/M, Madness, Monsters, Other, Sex with sentient animals (implied), Winged Horse, olympus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25303135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat
Summary: Pegasus, companion and steed to Bellerophon, weaves a story of heroism, love, and loss. The last chapter remains to be told.
Relationships: Bellerophon/Pegasus
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: Froday Flash Fiction Little & Monthly Specials 2020





	The Secret Lives of Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Note: rape is mentioned but not depicted
> 
> FFFC 100th Special Challenge  
> Table D: Fairytale/Fantasy/SciFi  
> Written for the prompt: 4) flying horses

You hear a lot about heroes these days. Our great deeds. Our might. But do you hear about what it’s really like to be one of us? What it’s like on the inside? Gather round.

What makes a hero? First off, guilt.

My dad raped my mom, and then she got her head cut off, and that was how I was born. As you might imagine, this left me with a few survivor guilt issues. 

Second, not really belonging anywhere.

See, on top of my inauspicious birth circumstances, I don’t look like either of my parents. Not that I’d want to have a mess of snakes for hair. But we’re talking not even the same species. How do a sea god and the offspring of a couple of sea monsters breed a flying horse? Two of us actually. But my brother didn’t find the fame I did. 

At least I wasn’t the only one of my kind, but it’s not like there were a lot of flying horses around, or any way for us to get to know each other. No flying horse affinity groups. The rest of them all worked for some god or other. We didn't have a Facebook page. 

Third, motivation.

Yes. It got better. Because Bellerophon found me. My beloved companion. My Master.

He was another hero, Bellerophon. And he also had troubles with his own people. 

Guilt? He kept on being accused of crimes he didn’t commit. Or did he? Fratricide, rape, you name it. Innocent victim? Or “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”? He always maintained his innocence to me, but we didn’t talk about it much.

Not belonging anywhere? Try being kicked out of your homeland, seeking the hospitality supposed to be granted to every guest in those days...only to be sent on a mission intended to kill you. The classic method for ridding oneself of a difficult person.

Motivation? Enter...well, me. He caught me. He tamed me. He took me as his steed.

Oh, those were sweet days. The way the golden bridle felt against my skin. His firm hands. The weight of his body atop mine.

Yes, we are half brothers. But don't judge. Pretty hard to find anyone _not_ related to you in some manner, if you’re Poseidon’s kid. Dad really gets around. 

Heroes. Lovers. Master and steed.

We killed that nasty Chimera, and then the fun really began. Solymi, Cheirmarrhus, the Amazons...no one could stand against us. Oh how we fought, and celebrated. Oh, how we loved. 

It wasn’t the same after he married, but we were still together often.

And then, little by little, he went mad. 

Maybe a little success is bad for us heroes. His hard-won acceptance into society wasn’t enough. His longed-for family wasn’t enough. And I was no longer enough, either. 

He had to have Olympus. Immortality. The brotherhood of gods. 

I don’t even remember how he convinced me to fly him there. (I could, you know. I descended from gods on both sides, he on only one.) I suppose I loved him too well to refuse him. Or maybe I should say too poorly, since I failed to protect him. 

Well, you undoubtedly know the rest of the story. Zeus sending a gadfly against us, stinging and provoking me until I’d thrown him off, unawares...

By the time I realized what had happened, it was too late. I flew the rest of the way to Olympus, begged for help. To no avail. And then I tried to escape, to no avail. 

They all told me that being the bearer of the thunderbolts was an honor. It was also a chain.

So long have I been chained. 

I hear Bellerophon is wandering somewhere on Earth, alone again, and blind.

Gods and our offspring are supposed to be immortal. And it’s true our bodies don’t age. But nothing can stop the mind from aging. It grows dull from repetition, disappointment. From looking away from its own longings. From despair.

In this way, I have aged. And the aged have less to lose.

I’ve figured out a way to break the chains that bind me to the chariot of thunderbolts. Soon I will leave Olympus and return to Earth. I know the gods could track me down, but I suspect they won’t bother. I’m used up, and they have other concerns now.

I don’t know if I will find Bellerophon. He may be hidden. He may have died.

But nothing’s left for me but this. And I shall see it through, if I can. That’s what heroes do.

**Author's Note:**

> The myths and stories vary; these are the assumptions for this one:  
> Pegasus is a son of Poseidon and Medusa. Medusa is a mortal daughter of the sea monster gods Phorcys and his sister Ceto.  
> Bellerophon is a son of Poseidon and Eurynome, a mortal.


End file.
